“Most of the others are made of plastic,” says Nick Cottiss, international sales and marketing director for DP.

How could they get the projector’s durability across?

Why not drive a truck over it?

But of course!

The gang wasn’t 100-percent confident that the $90,000 projector would survive, so the first test run was performed on an empty chassis. No problem. Next, they submitted a complete projector – a non-working early prototype – to the test. Survived again.

In the end, they were ready to run Cottiss’s own 3-tonne (3.3 US ton) truck over the beast, while a movie was playing – specifically a DVD of “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs.”

There was no special meaning behind that video, says Cottiss: “It was at the top of the DVD stack.”

It was important to do the demo with a movie playing, he says, because “we had to prove not just that it would survive but that it would survive undamaged.”

It did. Six times.

Cottiss says they had to bolt the projector to the ground to keep it stationary. Other than that, there was no hanky panky in the demo, which is playing on numerous screens in the Digital Projection booth at ISE.

How was Cottiss so lucky to be selected as the driver? In this video, he explains why his truck was picked (the demo reel follows).

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About the Author

Julie Jacobson, Co-Founder, EH Publishing / Editor-at-large, CE Pro

Julie Jacobson, recipient of the 2014 CEA TechHome Leadership Award, is co-founder of EH Publishing, producer of CE Pro, Electronic House, Commercial Integrator, Security Sales and other leading technology publications. She currently spends most of her time writing for CE Pro in the areas of home automation, security, networked A/V and the business of home systems integration. Julie majored in Economics at the University of Michigan, spent a year abroad at Cambridge University, earned an MBA from the University of Texas at Austin, and has never taken a journalism class in her life. She's a washed-up Ultimate Frisbee player currently residing in Carlsbad, Calif. Follow her on Twitter @juliejacobson. [More by Julie Jacobson]

10
Comments
(displayed in order by date/time)

Posted by Randy Blanchard on 01/31 at 08:51 AM

Cool demo DP guys!!

Posted by Grant Clauser on 01/31 at 10:22 AM

I’m waiting for a projector that can stand up to a cage of gorillas like in the old Samsonite commercial. Then you know UPS or FedEx can’t destroy it.

Posted by Bill Sloan on 01/31 at 10:41 AM

Best demo ever? They might build a tough outer case, they might even build an awesome projector, but to call that the best demo ever is a stretch. All my customers already use their projector as a speed bump instead of showing video… Not

Posted by Dave Stevens on 02/01 at 07:07 AM

You stated it survived 6 times… What happened on the 7th?

Very cool demo, however they should have run the truck over the producer & director of, “Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs.” Then it would have been entitled, “Messy With a Chance of Detailing.”

Posted by fred harding on 02/01 at 09:50 AM

Julie,
Beg to differ. Running it over with a truck really doesn’t prove picture quality (at least from what I can tell). It really doesn’t prove durability in an installation (unless folks are driving trucks upside down on ceilings, a most unlikely circumstance). It proves that you can, however, get folks to look at unusual things and write about it. Would I sell a projector on the basis that a truck could run it over without damage? Nope.

Posted by Julie Jacobson on 02/01 at 04:44 PM

Dave, on the seventh time it rested.

Posted by Dave Stevens on 02/01 at 05:34 PM

Julie,
Now that was funny! Please don’t tell me the ending, (because I haven’t gotten that far yet), but are the people that are lost in the desert for 40 years the ones that invented GPS? The name, “Garmin,” sounds Jewish to me, but I could be wrong.

Posted by Dave Stevens on 02/01 at 06:54 PM

Hey Fred,
While you make great & valid points, can you take a step back and have a little fun?

I remember plugging Bose 901 speakers directly into an AC outlet a number of times for clients because Bose stated it could handle 4400 watts… and it did.

However, we all laughed our asses off smelling the ferro-fluid cooking up as we told the client, “That loud buzz you’re hearing is as good as it gets in sound quality.”

This business is supposed to be fun! Did Titan prove a point regarding picture quality or anything else? IMO, absolutely not. Yet, the demo brought the line great attention and there’s no such thing as bad publicity.

Posted by Mark Nagle on 02/02 at 02:31 PM

And the consistent negativity of the cepro readers continues

Posted by Dave Stevens on 02/02 at 03:58 PM

Mark,
How about I send you out a gift certificate to purchase a sense of humor? (I can’t afford the, “personality,” one.)

The only assumptive negativity that exists lays between your ears… Since I’ve heard the ocean before, I don’t need to put my ear up to yours to hear hear it again.

Have some fun for God’s sake! It was a cool demo that was obviously created by someone that knows how to, “Think out of the box.” It didn’t prove anything, and I’d bet money that no one filled out or applied for dealer applications that day because, “They had to have it.”

We’re all sorry if you were waiting for a spec sheet every time the truck ran over the projector… If you don’t get that this was a stunt to blow off some steam between professionals, maybe you’re skin is not thick enough to play with us.

C’mon Mark- lighten up and join the party. We’re in the best business ever because we get to play & sell toys for
a living…enjoy the ride.